Suspected Maine gunman found dead by apparent suicide, officials say

Lindsay Lowe and Amy Eley and Samantha Kubota
·5 min read
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The manhunt for the suspected Maine shooter has ended.

Robert Card, 40, the suspect in the Oct. 25 shooting that took place at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, has been found dead, senior law enforcement officials tell NBC News.

In a press conference on Friday evening, Gov. Janet Mills and law enforcement officials confirmed Card had been found in the town of Lisbon Falls, Maine.

He was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at 7:45 p.m. near the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls, Mike Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, said on Oct. 27.

It’s unclear when he died, Sauschuck said.

In a morning press conference Oct. 28, Sauschuck said Card's body was found in a parking lot near the Maine Recycling Corporation at 61 Capital Avenue.

Card worked for Maine Recycling Corporation “at some point,” according to Sauschuck.

“I don’t know if he was currently employed or not,” Sauschuck said at the briefing. “And I don’t think I’m in a position to answer that.”

Officials had cleared the recycling facility twice, but checked the parking lot across Capital Avenue only after the owner suggested it, Sauschuck said.

Card was an Army Reservist whose family says he was experiencing deteriorating mental health in the days before the shooting.

Sauschuck said a note addressed to a loved one located in Card's home had “tone and tenor” suggesting “the individual was not going to be around,” but it was not explicitly a suicide note. The note included his phone and his bank account numbers, Sauschuck added.

“If you talk about is there a motive here, right, I think clearly, there’s a mental health component to this,” Sauschuck said.

Officials are currently attempting to access the phone, Sauschuck said at the Saturday press conference.

The shooter is accused of killing 18 people and injuring several others, police say. The victims were identified Friday afternoon, the youngest being only age 14.

  • Ronald G. Morin, 55

  • Peyton Brewer-Ross, 40

  • Joshua A. Seal, 36

  • Bryan M. MacFarlane, 41

  • Joseph Lawrence Walker, 57

  • Arthur Fred Strout, 42

  • Maxx A. Hathaway, 35

  • Stephen M. Vozzella, 45

  • Thomas Ryan Conrad, 34

  • Michael R. Deslauries II, 51

  • Jason Adam Walker, 51

  • Tricia C. Asselin, 53

  • William A. Young, 44

  • Aaron Young, 14

  • Robert E. Violette, 76

  • Lucille M. Violette, 73

  • William Frank Brackett, 48

  • Keith D. Macneir, 64

Three shooting victims are still in “critical care,” Sauschuck said Saturday.

“And I don’t have any more specifics reference to the remaining 10 in that scenario,” Sauschuck said. “And as you might imagine, these individuals passed away because of this crime. And these other folks have to live the rest of their lives. So I’m not sure that they want to be identified.”

Here’s what to know about the shooting that took place in Lewiston, Maine:

Who is Robert Card?

Robert Card was an Army Reservist and firearms instructor.

He enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2002. He was a petroleum supply specialist and had no combat deployments, Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said in a statement to NBC News.

Dubee also noted that the Army did not train Sgt. 1st Class Card "as a firearms instructor, nor did he serve in that capacity for the Army."

He had a son who recently graduated from high school, his sister-in-law, Katie Card, told NBC News.

Katie Card also said that her brother-in-law was struggling with his mental health leading up to the shooting, saying he had been hearing voices saying “horrible” things about him.”

“He was picking up voices that he had never heard,” she told NBC News. “His mind was twisting them around. He was humiliated by the things that he thought were being said.”

According to a bulletin from the Maine Information and Analysis Center, a law enforcement database, Card had “recently reported mental health issues to include hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, ME.”

What happened in Lewiston?

On Oct. 25, police say a shooter opened fire at a bowling alley called Just-in-Time Recreation in Lewiston, Maine.

The shooter killed seven people at the bowling alley, which had been hosting a gathering for youth league matches, NBC News reported.

The shooter then went to a nearby restaurant, Schemengees Bar and Grille, where he also opened fire, killing eight people.

That evening, the bar had been hosting a cornhole tournament for deaf people, according to NBC News.

In addition to those found dead at the scenes, three people died later at local hospitals, officials say, and 13 people were wounded.

How long was Card missing?

The shooter was still at-large as of Friday afternoon, two days after the shooting occurred. By Friday evening, senior law enforcement officials confirmed to NBC News that he had been found dead.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers participated in the manhunt, which included dive teams and air searches.

Officials confirmed Friday that a note had been found during the search for Card, but that they could not comment on the contents of the note.

Officials lifted the order to to residents of Lewiston and other nearby communities to shelter in place Friday afternoon, hours before Card was found dead.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com